anecdotal evidence that bamboo rod collecting/use is generational

0 Kudo

Author	Comment
Chartist1	anecdotal evidence that bamboo rod collecting/use is generational		Lead	[-]
Posts: 353 06/10/2009 18:49	Tags : None last fall and winter I made quite a few trips to fish steelhead between Cleveland and Erie, pa. I used a John Pickard Texan each time. On no trip did I see another fisherman using a bamboo rod for steelhead, and I saw a lot of fisherman. Now you can buy a nice bamboo rod for steelhead for not a lot of money, yet no one seems to be doing it. Geez, I wonder if it's because bamboo is so much heavier to carry, etc......Now I don't think it's far fetched to extrapolate my observations to all other fly fishing situations. I personally only use graphite for saltwater. But just don't see many folks using bamboo. And the ones I have seen, aren't the youngest guys in the stream.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
fishnbanjo		#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 6040 06/10/2009 19:09 the Canefather	There are 5627 members here worldwide and how many fly fishers would you hazard a guess there are worldwide? I'd hazard a guess that more graphite rods are sold per year than there are members here which means they don't fish with bamboo, more for us, no? banjo Fly fishing is my Quisisana (the name is Italian for "place where one heals one's self.") "...... SLG Visit my website about Bamboo rods... Fishnbanjo's Place Last Edited By: fishnbanjo 06/10/2009 19:12. Edited 1 time.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
Chartist1		#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 354 06/10/2009 19:11	yes banjo, more for us.....but in 10 years time, will there only be 4627 member worldwide?
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
fishnbanjo		#3	[url]	[-]
Posts: 6042 06/10/2009 19:14 the Canefather	Chartist1 wrote: yes banjo, more for us.....but in 10 years time, will there only be 4627 member worldwide? LOL! 10 years ago we had only around 985 members world wide given your catastrophic vision it's 10 years later and we should have -15 members now..... banjo Fly fishing is my Quisisana (the name is Italian for "place where one heals one's self.") "...... SLG Visit my website about Bamboo rods... Fishnbanjo's Place
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
bobbeegee	More and more	#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2779 06/10/2009 19:45	fly fishermen are becoming more and more interested in the bamboo rod from what I am seeing and reading here and on other Forums. Bob Go Heels!!!
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
kimk		#5	[url]	[-]
Posts: 665 06/10/2009 19:50	I have fished the Battenkill as my home stream for more than 20 years. In all that time I have only encountered 2 bamboo equipped fishermen other than myself and my guests. Bamboo is a rare affliction which is a good thing for those so afflicted. Not so good for those trying to make a dollar making bamboo rods. AgMD
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
ZenCane		#6	[url]	[-]
Posts: 119 06/10/2009 20:25	Bamboo collecting is like vinyl records - a small, but passionate, and fluctuating group. Which by and large, is a more interesting group than graphite users (of which, in some instances I am one) or CD users (of which I am also, in some instances, one, even though I love vinyl - but my car player won't accept records). That said, I use exclusively my PHY Prosperity 8 wt for steelhead.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
tim simbari		#7	[url]	[-]
Posts: 380 06/10/2009 20:53	As long as were"extrapolating", based on how many rod makers there were 25 years ago compared to today, in another 25 years there should be about 150,000 guys making cane rods in the US. I predict the coming China bamboo shortage, which will crush the global economy until people discover hydroponic bamboo growing, starting primaly in the Clevland area. Better buy some pots now.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
Marty		#8	[url]	[-]
Posts: 186 06/10/2009 22:06	I see other guys with bamboo occasionally. There are a few in my FF club. Many have a small wand for the mountains. What amazes me are the number of guys that ask me about it and the silk line as well. There is a group of us that meet often for coffee at the fly shop. The number is small and I think growing slightly. Fly fishers are a small percentage of those that fish and of that smaller group cane anglers are an even smaller subset. There is too large a group of rod makers doing well to say that this is anything but a growing segment of the sport. Many guys get tired of the high tech fast pace ....go go go.... fish at any price graphite attitude (not all graphite fishers are that way by any stretch but many of the young ones I meet are) ..... Bamboo, old reels, silk line (for some of us that are truly nuts) is such a welcome departure from the blackberry, cell phone, hi tech world we live in. Of the guys I know that fish bamboo a lot there are about 30% under 40 and the balance split between there and retired ........ I'd have to disagree that its generational.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
bow river		#9	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1463 06/10/2009 22:43	this site will only grow in members , i hear and see bamboo chat all the time from guys who use plastic sticks , i think it will grow even more faster now as some of the top plastic sticks will cost you about what a great used bamboo rod will cost now , we need to get alot more of the younger guys and newbies into fishing bamboo and into collecting rods and reels to keep this sport alive , what good is it to collect all these reels and rods and when the time is ready to pass them along , no one wants them Richard Check out my web site for vintage reels & rods , guided float trips on canada's # 1 best trout river http://bowriveradventures.googlepages.com/home
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
teter		#10	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1336 06/11/2009 00:01	Guys, God bless the many fine bamboo rodmakers, including the ones who post on this board; I will support and praise them, but we are all swimming against the tide. Despite the handful of bamboo rods offerered by the big catalog merchants (Orvis, Bean, and Cabelas), the mass market is not anywhere close to being about bamboo, and it never will be again. I dropped in at Bean's flagship store in Freeport a couple of years ago, right after they started selling the Gary Lacey rods, and the clerks I asked about the rod on display shrugged and basically said they didn't know anything about bamboo. Take Orvis -- the bamboo rod made that company, but today it's a teensy piece of their operation. Go into one of their stores; they might have one on display, but the sale racks are graphite only. Do I fault them? No, I am grateful that they remain committed to making and selling some bamboo, because even at the high prices they charge, they certainly don't make and sell enough cane to have a significant impact on their bottom line. When I travel, I almost always take a bamboo rod along. If I'm in an unfamiliar place (or sometimes even a familar one), I often hire guides, both because I expect they can show me some fish and because I like to help the local fly fishing industry. I have yet to run into one who fishes bamboo, though quite a few have shown interest ...("I'm afraid I would break it" or "they're too heavy" or "I can't afford one" is almost always the sentiment expressed.) I know many guides live on a shoestring (or a flyline?), but if bamboo was perceived widely as being state of the art, these guys would know more about it, in my opinion. I DO believe interest in bamboo is growing, and I hope, for the sake of the many fine rodmakers I have met or patronized over the last nine years, that there is plenty of business out there. Even if the number of bamboo aficianados stays constant, sheer attrition in the numbers of older rods (or increasing reluctance to fish them because of their age) should provide a market for new bamboo rods, But I don't see bamboo making any statistically significant dent in the overall new-rod market. Is this a bad thing? Not as long as our bamboo makers are able to thrive, and we bamboo addicts are still able to get our new or classic rods. My "analysis" is completely anecdotal, of course. P.S. As to the question of "generational"; I'm not sure how that is meant. My generation -- I'm 57 -- is not bamboo, it was fiberglass and has beome graphite. The production bamboo rod industry collapsed when I was in grade school. I have four kids, three of them adults. All of them have fly rods and enjoy fly fishing, or at least tell me they do, maybe just to humor me. The older two like graphite, the younger two like bamboo. All that reflects, in my opinion, is that when the two older ones started fly fishing with me, I was fishing graphite; when the two younger ones started fishing with me, I had converted to bamboo. Last Edited By: teter 06/11/2009 00:10. Edited 1 time.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
tight loops		#11	[url]	[-]
Posts: 280 06/11/2009 03:28	Yesterday a young guy in his early twenties visited me at my fly-shop. I'd seen him a few times previously, hanging out in the shop and after we'd exchanged greetings he explained that he had decided to make a bamboo fly-rod. He has never seen a decent bamboo rod before, but he's clearly done a lot of reading and research. His culms are ordered, along with planing forms and all the other tools and he's figured out which tapers to start with. He tells me that he 's been into wood-working for a long time and knows that he is going to have to hack along working stuff out as he goes, but he's pretty confident he can pull this rod-making thing off. We've just opened the shop and the coffee's just brewed. I've brought in my copy of Garrison and Carmichael's Master's Guide and three fly-rods: a 7.5' 3/2 McDowell, a 8' 3/2 Jennings and a Granger Aristocrat. I'm expecting a visit from a young aspiring bamboo rod-maker. Generational? Tom
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
jeffkn1		#12	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1920 06/11/2009 06:14	Collecting is generational.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
DrakeBob		#13	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1356 06/11/2009 09:22 Formerly Drake	Is bamboo collecting/use generational? Well… yes and no. I tend to agree with others that the collecting is generational, but I'm not sure that "use" is so generational - at least not right at this moment in time. It seems to me that there is a progression that people go through. Converts to fly fishing - particularly younger people who grew up in an age of exponential leaps in technology - once bombarded with all the advertising about what it really takes to catch 100 10-lb fish a day, tend to turn to plastic to get started. Then at some point they say to themselves, "Hmmm… is this really why I took up fly fishing?" And the answer is mostly "no." So, they start looking for a "simpler" way to get back to what drew them to the sport to begin with and that might include a bamboo rod. So, they buy a bamboo rod. And then another. And then another… and all the while, they are getting older. So, yes, I believe that collecting does end up being generational in a way. I also agree with teter in that a new maker here and another bamboo devotee there, does not a trend make. We are still a very small minority of people who fish and bamboo rod making is still a cottage industry and it's not ever going to become mainstream again. But there are other generational aspects to the sport too. Every time I go to a TU meeting, I look around the room and I am concerned and somewhat saddened that I see an awful lot of gray hair. I used to think this was a problem with my chapter until I started talking to other people in other chapters and they are seeing the same thing. In a more general trend, the huge influx of people who turned to fly fishing in the last 20 or 30 years is aging. But I digress… back to bamboo. Bob Piscator Non Solum Piscatur Last Edited By: DrakeBob 06/11/2009 09:26. Edited 2 times.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
BlackHillsBill		#14	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2805 06/11/2009 10:40	But I've been walking through the night and the day Till my eyes get weary and my head turns gray. And sometimes it seems maybe God's gone away Forgetting his promise and the word he'd say. And we're lost out here in the stars. Little stars, big stars blowing through the night And we're lost out here in the stars. --Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill My head turned gray long ago, and I'm not sure what deal God made concerning the longevity of the bamboo fly rod and its adherents anyway. I've quit worrying about those things or about how many other bamboo fly rod fishermen will be around to talk to me about our curious mutual obsession. If there are only a handful and if I'm still up to the walk, I'll find them. Last Edited By: BlackHillsBill 06/11/2009 10:44. Edited 2 times.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
DrakeBob		#15	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1357 06/11/2009 11:01 Formerly Drake	Now, don't take this personally, Bill. I'm not far behind you. Every day the people at Clairol make a pitch to win me over much the way the people at Orvis did 45 years ago. I succumbed to Orvis. Clairol can take a hike. That muddied mess I wrote above was simply meant to say that as the entire age demographic of the sport shifts, the collection of bamboo rods may be simply going along for the ride and so it gives the appearance of a generational thing. To me, it's only truly generational if people under the age of, say, 45 - just to pick a number - make a conscious decision to not collect bamboo rods and people over the age of 45 make a conscious decision to collect bamboo rods. I don't think that's happening. Am I worried about it? Not in the least. I do worry about the overall interest and participation in the sport and the conservation thing. Piscator Non Solum Piscatur
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
BlackHillsBill		#16	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2806 06/11/2009 11:31	Bob, I know that your heart is pure and that you have the probity and strength of the wise, which is ten times ten of that of the infidel. For you are, after all, Sergeant at Arms of the VWB. It's just that I love that song from that musical, and there's rarely an opportunity to quote it. My favorite conservationist, as it turns out, is Robert Frost's Ovenbird: He says the highway dust is over all. The bird would cease and be as other birds But that he knows in singing not to sing. The question that he frames in all but words Is what to make of a diminished thing. I suspect we'll all have either to answer that one or to answer for it. And I like grassroots approaches like the discussion here, which serves to keep our thought on the main object. Thanks. I'm not sensitive about my gray hairs and premature balditude, but it's hard not to be aware as well of those diminished things.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
jeffkn1		#17	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1921 06/11/2009 12:04	There's an enormous difference between taking every paperback you read and sticking it in your bookcase, and assembling a library of original 17th century Shakespearean works (for example). Owning nothing but 7 1/2' rods from different makers can loosely be thought of as collecting, their length being the common thread, but that requires naught but a little shopping and deep enough pockets. That kind of collecting is being done in other areas, like Beanie Babies though you can buy the Beanies for relatively small money . Collecting? Well, I s'pose. It obviously offers gratification at some level but it's become too elementary for me. The more time I've spent looking rods over, the more I've learned and been required to learn. That education reshapes and refocuses the effort. I see a lot of the same problems in lure collecting. Collectors have driven up the prices of important lures to the point where mere mortals can no longer stay in the market. You know what some of them collect instead? Current production stuff, much of it made in Japan. Yessuh, gimme that lure in every color it's produced in. Makes a display that's interesting to look at for a few minutes, but you don't have to learn a dam' thing. That's an easy sell to the younger audiences. Expanding your knowledge base changes your perspective. That takes years, often generations. Real collecting is generational.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
recane1		#18	[url]	[-]
Posts: 208 06/11/2009 12:41	This past Monday I went fishing early in the morning. I decided to head back home about 3 PM. On the way home I will be passing 4 fly shops. I decided to stop in at all 4 just to sniff around a bit. I did not see one bamboo rod at any of the shops, nor did I see any old reels that held my interest. What does that mean? If people were interested in buying bamboo rods, you can bet your ass the fly shops would be selling them. It's an idea called supply and demand. As for the number of people on this board, I went way back on some of the posts the other day. I noticed that there were a good number of folks that posted quite regularly a few years ago that no longer post. Where have these people gone? Are they no longer interested in Bamboo? Are the no longer fishing at all? Have they passed on to that great trout stream in the sky? Some people that are overly obsessive about certain activities some times have a short attention span. Maybe these folks just started collecting stamps or antique chairs and got board with bamboo fly rods. Are there really 5000 people on this board? One of the fly shop owners got to talking about the number of people that fly fish. He is a big time numbers guy. He told me of many stats that showed a sharp decline of the number of anglers in the general area. What is the deal with that? Aaron
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
DrakeBob		#19	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1358 06/11/2009 12:48 Formerly Drake	I completely agree that there is a difference between collecting and accumulating. If you substitute "accumulation" for "collection" in what I said, I don't know that that necessarily changes what I'm suggesting may be a dynamic that's at work in what Chartist1 sees astream... "But just don't see many folks using bamboo. And the ones I have seen, aren't the youngest guys in the stream." There is no way of knowing whether these people are collectors or accumulators. They are just older guys who happen to be fishing with bamboo at that moment. I do know some older generation angler/"accumulators" who own a hodgepodge of rods that they just like, i.e.., more of an accumulation. I also know some younger generation angler/"collectors" who have taken the time and put in the effort to gain some knowledge and are putting together a more ordered "collection." Granted, these are probably works-in-progress. I could very well be F.O.S., but I don't agree that the collecting vs. accumulating difference is bounded by age and experience. But, that may be just me... And, ultimately, the difference between collecting and accumulating may be in the eye of the beholder. I see a couple of common threads through my rods. Others may be wondering if I see anything at all. If there is a standard to which I should aspire, please let me know so I can get with it before I get so generational that I'm not capable of collecting or accumulating any more. Piscator Non Solum Piscatur Last Edited By: DrakeBob 06/11/2009 14:06. Edited 2 times.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote
BlackHillsBill		#20	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2807 06/11/2009 13:33	recane1 wrote: As for the number of people on this board, I went way back on some of the posts the other day. I noticed that there were a good number of folks that posted quite regularly a few years ago that no longer post. Where have these people gone? Are they no longer interested in Bamboo? Are the[y] no longer fishing at all? Have they passed on to that great trout stream in the sky? Some people that are overly obsessive about certain activities some times have a short attention span. Maybe these folks just started collecting stamps or antique chairs and got board [sic] with bamboo fly rods. Are there really 5000 people on this board? A few got the shaft rather than simply "board." Others were sent on long furloughs to restore failing parts or faulty faculties. Some, particularly those with short attention spans, were run over and squashed by threads asking which graphite rods they kept in their closets. Some merely died in the course of doing their duty to the natural order. The number who have taken up philately or upholstery of Queen Anne settees is a rather closely guarded secret around here. And you shouldn't ask. I lost one very good friend who simply forgot himself and uttered a careless word political. But I know of only one who no longer fishes. He is on a study sabbatical accumulating the detritus of other generations.
Interact My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Invite Blocking Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Reply Quote

<< Previous Topic Next Topic >>

Yuku free message boards

anecdotal evidence that bamboo rod collecting/use is generational

anecdotal evidence that bamboo rod collecting/use is generational

Quick Reply